Buying Second hand equipment

Hi, I'm new here so I've been reading a bit of the post and noticed the one about the Craftsman Table saw. I just purchased one from a gentleman that used it for several years commercially cutting plastics and acrylic glass for automobile installations. He had bought a new Craftsman Cabinet and sold me the old 113-241680 for $60.00. It runs good, still has all the guards, pawl, and spreaders in place and both table extension on adjustable legs. I have not tried it as yet because I've been tied up trying to get my new Garage door opener installed and it's been too cold here to work out there very long.

Anyway, the question I wanted to ask was I purchased a Delta planer 12.5 x 6.5 Model 22-565. It did not have the stand with it but that's not a big deal. I gave $95.00 for it and we started it up before I took it. The motor sounded good, but I have not tried running any lumber through it but since I had never used a planer before thought I might ask about what I needed to look at for cleaning, squaring and adjusting before I did that. Should I take the blades out and see how sharp/good they are before doing anything else?

Any suggestions will be much appreciated.

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Buying Second hand equipment

Well, it was not a bad deal. it was really good deal that you purchased a Delta planer Model 22-565. for a planer, to do its job correctly and smoothly you need to do one thing that is sharpen its blades. of course you need to loosen the bolts and remove the blades. then either install new blades or sharpen these blades. many tools are there for sharpening the blades.

Buying Second hand equipment

I always advise people to go for the older equipment. More often than not the tool has had little use and a lot higher quality tool can be had for the cost of a new, low end equivalent. Seems a lot of people buy tools they never really use.

Most of the time the best method for sharpening these blades is simply to replace them, most portable planers use disposable blades that really weren't meant to be sharpened. This is mostly because it is very difficult to get a consistent edge over the full length. It can be done but requires some special equipment and jigs to do it well. I have a tormek sharpener and a planer blade jig that works great but cost over $750 total, a new set of blades is less than $50. If the blades are not sharpened perfectly straight, installed and set correctly the machine will never make a quality cut.

Run a board or two and see what kind of shape they are in first. Check your board to assure it is cutting the board face flat, smooth and parallel to the other side. Usually the biggest problem with lunchbox planers is their ability to feed the wood correctly. Larger machines use a serrated infeed roller which offers more consistent feed rates, these little planers only have rubber rollers that often slip.

Buying Second hand equipment

Also be aware there's likely to snipe to deal with on the ends of the board, so do not cut the board to length until untill it's been planned to the thickness you need.
Snipe is a low area at the end of the cut.
If there's more then one board that's going to be the same thickness, if you can manage to load it before the other pieces is finished cutting there will be less snipe.

Buying Second hand equipment

Quote:

Originally Posted by joecaption

Also be aware there's likely to snipe to deal with on the ends of the board, so do not cut the board to length until untill it's been planned to the thickness you need.
Snipe is a low area at the end of the cut.
If there's more then one board that's going to be the same thickness, if you can manage to load it before the other pieces is finished cutting there will be less snipe.

Oh, you all gave me a lot to think about here. I understand about people not using tools they buy. I have a Craftsman Miter saw that I bought at a garage sale a while back for $5.00. He said it would not rotate in any direction. When he said that I knew it was either a retaining pin wedged and not releasing or it was caked with sawdust that had been wet and setup like concrete. Brought it home (no I didn't argue about the $5.00) spend a couple of hours cleaning the crude out of it and found the wedged pin that was actually supposed to keep the blade in the down position for transporting. Put some WD-40 on the horizontal slide area to clean it with a good wire brush, then rubbed some bar soap around that guide. Took the broken pin completely out and threw it away, cleaned the vertical saw blade rotation and it works like a new one. I'm sure the guy had no idea these machines need to be kept clean & dry or they don't work right.
The best buy I made tho was this past week (yeah, besides the planer) at another garage sale, was a Rigid 12" scroll saw. Looked fairly new but the blade had rusted so it had been sitting in an area with high humidity. Anyway, they wanted $25.00 for it but told me it wouldn't cut anything. I thought they meant the motor was bad but no, they started it up and showed me how it would not cut the wood at all, wouldn't even start to cut it. I talked them into taking $15.00 for it, brought it home and turned the blade with the teeth pointed down instead of up and it cut great, even with the rusty blade. I did get some new blades to put in it and now it is just really great making really nice tight turns with no blade stress.

Anyway, I'm going to try to get some inside work done during this cold spell and then it's supposed to be up to 60 degrees here Saturday or Sunday, and I can work in the garage and see what the planer can do. I will keep you posted on the out come of this.

BCoate

Last edited by bcoate; 12-04-2014 at 02:01 PM.
Reason: Miss spelled some words

Buying Second hand equipment

Yes, I would expect that of a tool that is intended to cut anything and especially anything difficult. They haven't taken all the sharp objects away from me yet and I still have all my fingers and toes. But your point is well taken. and, yes the first thing I did was go online and download a users manual. But I also know those don't tell you everything you need to know about a tool.

Quitting the internet for tonight. been a long day and I have some self study I have to get done before going to class next week.